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We have a book cover

It is with joy that I present to you...

...my first book cover! (It's a bit clearer if you click on it.)

I have it printed and hanging above my desk, where it distracts me day and night.

The characters on the cover are our heroes of course, Nicolaos and Diotima. The building in the background is the Painted Stoa, which was under construction at the time of the story. The art director, David Rotstein (thank you!), has pulled the background from the third scene, in which the Painted Stoa makes an appearance:

This was the site of the new Stoa Poikile: the Painted Porch. The Stoa was a long portico with columns on the side facing the Agora, and a flat wall at the back. Two painters were using charcoal to sketch on the wall, far apart from each other, ignoring the chatter of the excited crowd about them. One had enough detail in that I could see he was about to paint a battle between the Hellenes and the Amazons; the other had barely begun.

“What’s it to be?” I asked the second man.

“The Fall of Troy,” he said, not turning. His eyes stayed on his work and his arm didn’t stop moving.

His lines were simple and direct, no fancy touches, not much detail, I marveled as the strong walls of Troy suddenly appeared beneath his confident hand. Without a pause he left the walls and began on a figure, a woman who I guessed to be Helen.

I said, “Well, don’t put me in it.”

That stopped him. He gnashed his teeth and said, “Gaah! Why must onlookers always say that?”

He threw a dirty rag at me, which I dodged, and skipped out of the porch.

Nicolaos was talking to a famous artist called Polygnotus, who really did paint a Fall of Troy on the Painted Stoa.

I have restyled the blog to match the book. I haven't done my actual web site yet, but this blog is where the action is and as soon as I had it remodelled I put it online. It'll be a small miracle if it works perfectly so please let me know if you have any problems.

You'll notice there is now a series name at the top of the blog. Welcome to The Hellene Mysteries. The jacket line on the cover however is A Mystery of Ancient Greece. You would not believe how much time went into considering those combined 8 words! A Mystery of Ancient Greece is instantly recognisable by anyone. That and the visual clues makes it instantly obvious to the casual browser what the book and the series is about. The Hellene Mysteries is something I can easily write in sentences and makes sense to you, the people who know history.

To add to my happiness, another milestone has also been reached as of last night. If you hop onto Amazon and search for my name or the title, you'll find The Pericles Commission is now up there. The Amazon page is missing a few things, such as a cover image and the blurb, but they'll come soon, and the book is there, and available for pre-order. Yay!

The book will appear on B&N, Borders, Books-a-Million, Book Depository.com and others from this point on as each store does its updates. I've therefore put a Buy the Book section at the top of the sidebar, and as stores come online with the book I'll add links to each of their pages.

The cover and the first bookstore page have made it all seem very much more real. It's like waking from a pleasant dream to discover that, actually, it's not a dream.

Hi Scary, thanks. I have a feeling you'll find out how it feels yourself one day.

Now you know why my brain has turned to mush in the last couple of weeks: I've been working out new design for the blog, sorting out a book tour, and trying to write the third book in between all that.

Oh my gosh! This is so exciting! I absolutely love the cover and the new blog look.

The inclusion of the Painted Stoa is totally awesome- I didn't even notice that it wasn't finished until I read your post. I think I was too excited to read about the cover. It kind of reminds me of Rick Riordan's covers for the Percy Jackson series- the covers always picked out a particular scene. When I started a new one I always wanted to get to that part.

Thanks Stephanie! I'm wondering how many people will write to say the artist forgot to finish coloring in the cover. But then, I'm also wondering how many people will write to say I forgot to include the Parthenon. This will be interesting...

I have! I still remember that first post Janet wrote looking for you! And then, of course, I found you blog from your comment there... and the rest is history.

I've found a lot of awesome writers from agent blogs, but I have to say, I keep coming back because I love your writing. And yes, it'll be a relief because I've honestly been dying to read it!!! It goes straight to the top of my to read pile the minute I get my hot little hands on it :-)

Google ate my comment this morning and I didn't have time to re-type it. Congratulations, Gary, you must be so proud and excited. The cover and the blog re-design both look great.

Umm, at least on my machine, for the blog archive and categories in the righthand column you've got blue writing on a blue background. Although I can read them, I do know some people who might find that sort of combination difficult to read.

I like it too, Rachel. A Dead Man Fell From The Sky is still the official blog title, because I couldn't bear to see it go. If you check the browser tab you should see it there.

I actually listed A Dead Man Fell From The Sky as one of the possibilities to appear on the jacket. That idea was the first on the list to die, when all the sane people dismissed it out of hand. Equally it would be hard to spend the next decade or two constantly referring to the series as the Dead Man Fell From The Sky Mysteries.

So much as I will always love it as the first line of my first book, the phrase can't keep pride of place as the series name.

I'm not letting go of it from the blog title though. I probably should put the explanation of what it means back on the blog somewhere, if I can work out where.

Its quite a thrill to see your novel's cover. I just got my proof copy a few weeks ago and went around showing it to everyone. Its like being the proud papa of a newborn baby. Looking forward to reading your novel when it comes out.

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